Menemsha Coast Guard

Text Box: I just couldn’t stop drawing every time we vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard, especially in the town of Menemsha. I felt like I wanted to draw every thing I saw. I made photocopies of some of the drawings in Edgartown and brought them to the Vineyard Gazette. They offered to publish the drawings without any payment and I decided I had nothing to lose. I got a request from a guy who published a magazine called The Catboat Journal. He wanted to use my drawing of a derelict catboat on the cover of his magazine. He couldn’t afford to pay anything but I agreed to let him reproduce the drawing if he would send me a few copies of the magazine. I never got any copies. I subscribed to the Vineyard Gazette for a few years and I did enjoy seeing my drawings appear regularly. I had an exhibit in the early 80’s at a gallery off Madison Avenue and I used one of the drawings in a postcard announcing the exhibit. The drawing was of three derelict boats in Wellfleet. It was clearly marked and I was surprised to see it appear as an illustration in the Vineyard Gazette. I wrote a letter to the Gazette stating that while I was pleased that they were using my Vineyard drawings in the paper I wasn’t pleased that they had used a drawing of mine from another place and without my permission without even publicizing the exhibit. I don’t know how the publisher got my phone number at work but I got a call in the Control Room one night about ten minutes before a news broadcast. He was extremely annoyed that I had written and, instead of apologizing for using the drawing without permission he threatened to stop his free use of any of my work. I said I thought that was just fine. That ended my career as an illustrator for the Vineyard Gazette.

All material copyright 2010 Neil Borrell

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Email   neil@borrellcompany.com

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This issue marks the end of volume IV. I’ve been publishing a chapter each month for 4 years. 

 

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